The WISE Awards

Partners for Possibility

Activity: Partners for Possibility aims to improve the quality of education by capacitating the school principals of under-resourced schools to lead change within their schools and their communities, through connecting business and school leaders.

Name of the Organization: Symphonia for South Africa (SSA)

Headquarter: Cape Town, South Africa

Geographical reach: South Africa

Number of beneficiaries: 1,434 school principals and business leaders who have participated in the program, 573,000 schoolchildren, 20,520 teachers and 280,000 families have benefited directly from Partners from Possibility.

About the Project

Partners for Possibility by Symphonia for South Africa, is a program which improves the quality of education by capacitating principals in under-resourced schools and building their leadership skills through partnerships with business leaders.

Context and Issue

Around 75% of schools in South Africa are considered to be “failing”. Over 10 million children attend these dysfunctional schools, most of which are in the poorest areas of the country. Almost 80% of South African children cannot read with comprehension after 4 years of schooling and around 50% drop out of school and receive no educational qualification. Most of these young people join the ranks of the long-term unemployed. This helps explain why in 2017, 24 years after democracy, youth unemployment in South Africa (SA) reached an all-time high of 56%.

Despite a wealth of research which shows that the leadership of school principals is a key determinant of student achievement, particularly in schools serving disadvantaged communities, most principals in SA are not being sufficiently equipped with the leadership skills they need to lead the change that is desperately needed in their schools. Leaders in SA’s business sector, by contrast, are very well trained to assume leadership positions and manage change. This is a key reason why SA accounts for almost 25% of Africa's GDP and has the second-largest economy on the continent behind Nigeria.

The Solution and Impact

Partners for Possibility (PfP), the flagship program of Symphonia, taps into an abundant national resource to develop the leadership capacity of principals in under-resourced schools by facilitating partnerships between principals and business leaders. Both partners participate in a 12-month structured leadership development program, while simultaneously tackling challenges together in schools and learning from and about each other.

Future Developments

Several independent evaluations have found that PfP’s impact has been profoundly positive in participating schools. This, together with PfP’s scalability, sustainability and sound governance explains why Symphonia has been ranked among the world’s top 100 NGOs and why the organisation is determined to implement PfP in at least 2,000 schools by 2025.